Worries About Originality In The Web Revival

[Rowan]

This is from a discussion that started in the Liquid Crystal Cafe that I thought would be best to move over to it's own topic. Here's whats been said so far:

I'm sad about some blog, because they've already talked about nearly every single thing I want to talk about.

I don't know why I always revert back to worrying about originality. I constantly have to remind myself it's not worth worrying about. The envy hits hard, though.

Ugh I know the feeling - youd be amazed how often I lay in bed feeling useless and uncreative - but its best to say screw it and do what you wanna do!

Life is short and there is infinite room for infinite variations - just because someone did something like you, it cant be you! Do it anyway! Climb Mt Everest! Bake a cake

the older i get, the more i realize i have less original thoughts than i thought :) i've come to find that people aren't reading other people's stuff for groundbreaking, original thought; more often than not, when browsing personal sites, they're looking for your personality, why things mean certain ways to you, the way you talk about it. even if someone else has written a dissertation in the same exact way that you planned to write about it, what things would you have said differently? did they write a poem about it? did they play with language in how they described certain things? writing is very open-ended, and when done for fun, i think originality is less of a concern than you might think :)

i think this is one of the things that stops people from creating content on their websites, because they think someone else has done it before and nobody will want to see "another." it's totally self-inflicted. adding stuff to your website that you like, enjoy, or enjoy creating is exactly what people want to see :)

P.S. My laptop crashed while writing this and my browser kept the forms intact. Technology is beautiful. 

[j]

i appreciate you posting this - especially given that i can't
see the cafe in my browser!

ironically, this topic cropped up tangientally over at the
Midnight Pub the other day.
my two cents resonate with xandra's ideas:
us folks in the alternative web scene walk a fine line
with the stuff we put on the WWW;
between creating for ourselves and creating for others.
i can only speak for myself, but i know that i often
forget that i don't need gratification
from emails replying to my blog in order to feel
accomplished.
that blog is there for me, and me alone.
it's super cool if i get an email or two about it,
but at the end of the day that's one of my more
shared creative outlets, and i should be content
with the fact that i'm priviliged enough to be able
to share my voice amongst the sea of the web
(though that doesn't mean that i shouldn't be refactoring
what i've said to grow as a person!)

i suppose that's a tangent to my main point too:
is an idea devalued because it's been thought before?
i don't think so; just because i reinvent the wheel
and make a program that someone else has already made
doesn't make that program any less useful, nor does
it make the process less valued.
if anything, i've learnt from making it, all because
i've had the idea that somebody else has had that
i was oblivious to when i first set out upon my
journey.

if that isn't self-reflection on my own worth,
i don't know what is!

[grovyle]

I was about to jump in the chat and say something when I saw that you'd made a thread! Thanks, it's much easier to read this way 

When I'm thinking of making something new, I always find myself asking the same question: do I want to make it on paper, or digitally? Lately I've been thinking on curating an animal enciclopedia, and while I think I would have more fun making it by hand on a cute notebook, I just don't do it because I know that way people won't see it, and I like sharing my interests. Who do I give it to, if I make it in notebook form? My family? My friends? Wait to die and watch from the afterlife as my descendants find it 150 years from now? I don't doubt they would take it, because they love me and are excited for me and everything I do, but they wouldn't be the /target/. None of them care about animals like they do. There are lots of people on the internet who do.

So I guess, just by transforming an idea into a website, whatever it is, you're already making a choice about wanting people to see it. You haev to believe, even if it's just deep down, that you have something to say. The nature of the internet is that people will see what you make, however few people, whatever their opinion.

But then again, I find myself thinking "do they actually care??? If they wanted to know something about mountain lions, they would just google it".

But then AGAIN, when I watch a cool show that I really like, or read a book that tugs at my heartstrings in just the right way, the first thing I ALWAYS do, without fail, is looking for more stories that are similar. Heck, I'm still looking for blogs similar to one I love in the early 2010s, and I got into this forum chasing the feeling of being on my first forum on 2008. We don't usually care for originality when we're looking for things to entertain/educate ourselves (even if we do appreciate it), but we always seem to think that other people always do, and that they're judging us specifically, and that we have nothing new to show.

When in reality maybe someone is on a rabbit hole of finding out what Littlest Pet Shop random strangers own, or what 15 people thought of some movie, or are looking for several websites with the same color schemes because they're easier to the eye, or want to read the millionth mac & cheese recipe, or whatever.

I rarely ask for full originality from others on whatever I browse/consume/watch/read/play, I don't know why I would ask for it for myself.

[xandra]

thank you for making this its own thread! this is such a good topic to discuss.

i suppose that's a tangent to my main point too:
is an idea devalued because it's been thought before?
i don't think so; just because i reinvent the wheel
and make a program that someone else has already made
doesn't make that program any less useful, nor does
it make the process less valued.
if anything, i've learnt from making it, all because
i've had the idea that somebody else has had that
i was oblivious to when i first set out upon my
journey.

if that isn't self-reflection on my own worth,
i don't know what is!

i love this!!!! to me, we're independently tapping into what it means to be human, contributing our individual quests for knowledge and/or ability, what it means to be sentient and have independent thought outside of your hierarchy of needs. it's valuable because you're doing it.

But then AGAIN, when I watch a cool show that I really like, or read a book that tugs at my heartstrings in just the right way, the first thing I ALWAYS do, without fail, is looking for more stories that are similar. Heck, I'm still looking for blogs similar to one I love in the early 2010s, and I got into this forum chasing the feeling of being on my first forum on 2008. We don't usually care for originality when we're looking for things to entertain/educate ourselves (even if we do appreciate it), but we always seem to think that other people always do, and that they're judging us specifically, and that we have nothing new to show.

When in reality maybe someone is on a rabbit hole of finding out what Littlest Pet Shop random strangers own, or what 15 people thought of some movie, or are looking for several websites with the same color schemes because they're easier to the eye, or want to read the millionth mac & cheese recipe, or whatever.

I rarely ask for full originality from others on whatever I browse/consume/watch/read/play, I don't know why I would ask for it for myself.

this is so well-put. thank you. i've seen people putting pressure on themselves to be "done" or that their website be a "perfect" display, but that is not a requirement by any stretch. everyone is a work in progress with themselves; why wouldn't your site be that way too? i hope you do make your notebook and then upload it to your site as an alternative so we could see your full vision!